Category: Grief

Consider the Lilies – Job 12 – 2025 Day 65

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Job 12, Psalm 33

Spring has arrived! The birds are singing. The trees are budding. The daffodils yellow heads are filling the landscape. The world seems alive after a long sleep. Revival! I love how the creation sings of its creator.

Has winter lasted too long in your heart and home? Have you lost your desire to bloom. Job understands and so does God. I pray that you will turn your face toward the Almighty and His face will shine on you as you wait for Him.

But ask the beasts,
and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens,
and they will tell you;
or the bushes of the earth,
and they will teach you;
and the fish of the sea
will declare to you.

Job 12:7-8

Jesus’s words in Matthew 6:26, 28-30 echo Job’s loud and clear — “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

You are the creator and sustainer of life. You send rain and sun and snow. Thank You for the beauty of spring after a long winter. Help us to learn what You’re teaching us – to be patient, to trust You, that everything has a season and time.

You take care of the birds and the flowers, and you take care of us.

We pray for those sisters who have suffered through a long winter full of storms and cold. Please let Your face shine upon them and be gracious to them and give them Your peace. Sustain them and strengthen them for the road ahead. Let them not grow weary. Help them to trust that in due time they will reap a harvest if they do not give up.

In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

✓ Subscribed

Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

“Where are the Snowdrops?” In loving memory of Anna Grace Kirby.
Please join me in praying for Joe and Emma Kirby and their family.
Do Not Worry – Rain for Roots

Words Unfitly Spoken – Thoughts from Job and his friends – 2025 Day 62 (Job 8)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Job 8; Psalm 30

Pondering Job 8 and the very true words of Job’s friend Bildad – that God is just, that He will restore Job’s fortunes and bless his life, and that the godless will surely not prosper – reminded of Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”

Were Bildad’s words fitly spoken? I think not. Why not? Because, like my dear friend Beth has often reminded me, “The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.” Eloquent speeches about God’s justice and judgment are inappropriate to give to a friend who has just lost all of their children and possessions.

It reminds me of times when I’ve gone shoe shopping and have found the perfect shoes at the perfect price, only to discover that they don’t fit. No matter how beautiful those shoes are, no matter what a good deal they are, if they’re too big or too small, you shouldn’t waste your money on them.

If our words are to be fitly spoken, we must be careful not only what we say, but how and when. If our words are to be fitly spoken, they must be fit to the person, place, and time.

If our words are to be fitly spoken,
we must be careful not only what we say, but how and when.

Please join me in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the joy of Your presence. You have indeed made me glad as I have trusted in You. You are always good. Make me more like You. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Let me look upon Your glory and see Your face.

Give me wisdom and discernment in what to say as well as what not to. Help me see what words fit and what words don’t. Give me insight into what the circumstances demand. May my words be as heartfelt as they are true. Help me to speak the truth from a heart filled with humility and love.

In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

“I Need Thee Every Hour”
Hymns of Grace

Sitting with a Grieving Friend – Thoughts from the Life of Job – 2025 Day 61 (Job 6-7)

Published on by kendraske2 Comments

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Job 6-7; Psalm 29

The two lowest months of my life were March of 1994 and October of 1998. Yet these were also the two seasons when Jesus began to radically transform my faith.

March 1994 was when I finally broke up with my fiancé, Eric, and moved to St. Louis. I was utterly alone in a way I’d never experienced before, but shortly thereafter I met Jesus and began a whole new life with Him always by my side.

October 1998 was when I found out that my stillborn baby’s body had been lost by the hospital after his autopsy. Why had God allowed this to happen? Losing my baby was painful enough …. Why this? I wrestled and struggled and mourned and questioned and grieved for months. What had I done wrong? Was God punishing me?

I didn’t want to go to church. I didn’t want to have playdates with my friends and their children. I just wanted to curl up in bed and stay there.

No one could understand the depth of my pain.

  • “He wasn’t even full-term.”
  • “You’ll have another.”
  • “I had a miscarriage, too, once. You’ll get over it. Give it some time.”
  • “It was just a body.”

Their words dug into my heart like so many little piercing arrows.

I distanced myself from my friends, and they distanced themselves from me, too. I couldn’t relate to them, and they couldn’t relate to me, either. They didn’t want to just sit and grieve with me day after day. A few days of crying was enough, wasn’t it? Why was this still going on weeks and even months later? This was when the book of Job really entered my life for the first time. (Actually, I had first encountered the book of Job in college when I was still an atheist, and I was assigned to read it as a “great work of ancient literature” in one of my liberal arts classes.) But 1998 is when Job’s words pierced my heart.

Out of all the pain and confusion, God again did something new in my heart. He grew my faith in new and profound ways. He taught me to simply trust Him when I don’t understand what’s He’s doing. He taught me that He is good even when people aren’t. He taught me that I can always turn to Him in my pain and suffering.

This week, reading Job again, really taking time to sit and study and journal and think, Job’s words are aimed at my heart again in a new way. Have I withheld kindness from a friend? Have I made light of a friend’s suffering? Can I look my friend in the eye and hold her hand in her grief?

Sisters, let’s not make the same mistakes as Job’s friends. Let’s run toward our friends in their pain, being willing to mourn with those who mourn, rather than running away out of fear and discomfort.

Let’s pray together.

Heavenly Father,

Your grace is sufficient for me for Your power is made perfect in my weakness. Thank You for giving us the book of Job that we could better understand the very real grief of men and the equally very real goodness of God. Help us to be good friends, to run towards those who are hurting instead of running away. Help us to be willing to sit and listen, instead of always trying to speak and fix. Make us like Jesus who wept with the grieving. Make us vessels of Your love and peace and kindness and comfort.

In the Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

“Because He Lives”
Keith & Kristyn Getty, Bill Gaither, Buddy Green

When the Encourager Needs Encouragement – Thoughts from the Life of Job – 2025 Day 60 (Job 4-5)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Job 4-5; Psalm 48

I’ve often found myself in the position of encourager. People come to me when they need prayer or encouragement or words of wisdom. This is certainly a blessing from God, and I’m honored to serve my sisters in this way. But … what about when it’s me who needs the prayer and encouragement and words of wisdom? Will I be able to take my own advice or will I crumble under the weight? Will my friends take the opportunity to encourage me, or will they point out my shortcomings in my sorrow?

After sitting silently with Job for seven days and nights (Job 2:13) Job’s friend, Eliphaz, finally speaks. His friend’s first words aren’t, “I’m so sorry, Job. I can’t imagine the pain you’re going through. I’m with you, and I’ll stay with you through thick and thin. I’m glad to have you as a friend.” No, Job’s friends’ first words are criticism.

“If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking? Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.”

– Job 4:3-5

Tears. 😢😢😢

I remember two years ago when I originally penned this message. Later that same afternoon, one of the moms of the teenage students I teach asked me if she could take my picture. She went on to explain how much her daughter loves me, and that she’s always telling her grandma about “Mrs. Kim.” Wow! That put wind in my sails like nothing else! Those few words encouraged me to keep my hands to the plow!

Can I just say how much a few simple words of thanksgiving and encouragement can strengthen a heavy heart?

Send a text. Send flowers. Mail a handwritten note. Make a phone call.

Click the “like button.” Leave a simple comment saying, “Thanks for taking the time to write this. Your words really ministered to me.”

Are we more like the one leper who returned to give Jesus thanks for healing him or the nine who received healing and kept right on their merry way, healed but unappreciative? (Luke 17:11-19)

How does God want you to encourage those who have encouraged you? We all grow weary from time to time.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your faithful, never-ending grace and encouragement. You never grow tired. You never feel hopeless. The light at the end of the tunnel is never hidden from you.

Today I pray for my sisters who are facing tests and trials, who have lost a parent, a child, a husband, a job. I pray for the one who is losing hope today, who feels like the sun will never shine again, who feels like they can’t make it one more step.

Will you please send someone to them to encourage them? Will You please use me to speak life to those who need it? Will You please pour Your love lavishly into my heart, so I have love to give to the next one? Make me Your vessel. Make Your Word a balm to their heavy soul as well as mine.

Father, I am so weak, and I grow so weary. Please, Father, encourage me. Pour into me. Lift up my hands and my head. Let me not lose heart. Please send friends around me to lift me up, that I will not faint.

In the Healing Name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

“See How He Loves Us”
Sovereign Grace Music

A Hedge of Protection – Thoughts from the Life of Job – 2025 Day 59 (Job 3)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Job 3; Psalm 27

When I was a new Christian learning how to pray, I noticed that people would often pray for “a hedge of protection” around someone. I had never heard that phrase before, but I started using it myself, asking God to put a hedge of protection around my children, my husband, my house.

Yesterday we looked at Job 1:9-11, “Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.””

But what about the previous verse, Job 1:8?

“And the Lord said to Satan,
“Have you considered my servant Job…”

Job 1:8a

I simply love this verse. Job was a blameless, upright man who feared God and turned away from evil, and yet the Lord offered him up to the evil one saying, “Have you considered my servant Job?”

The Lord removed that hedge of protection, allowing – in fact, inviting – the enemy’s attacks on His righteous servant, Job, and Satan stripped everything away from him – his possessions, his children, his health, even his wife’s encouragement, yet “in all this Job did not sin with his lips.” (Job 2:10) Lord, may the same be true of me. But my heart broke as I dove into Job 3, reading about Job cursing the day he was born.

Though I’ve enjoyed an easy life in comparison to Job’s, I’ve had my share of trials. Sometimes I have wished that heaven would hurry up and get here because this life is just too hard. And yet, I can say with full assurance that all of God’s ways have been right and good. He has grown my faith in Him during those times of pain. He has indeed sheltered me under His wings. He has taught me the wisdom of Psalm 27:4.

“One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.”

Psalm 27:4 ESV

So, today, whether you are feeling the glorious hedge of God’s protection (Job 1:10) or the painful hedge of thorny trials (Job 3:23), I pray that you will seek and serve the Lord no matter what.

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. Your grace is sufficient for me. Your strength is made perfect when I am weak. Whether I can feel Your presence or You feel a million miles away, help me to trust that You are always with me. Whether I’m on the top of the mountain of victory or in the bottom of the darkest valley, help me to see Your rod and staff guiding me. Let me not trust in any man-made rescue plan, but place my trust fully in You and You alone, for You are perfectly trustworthy.

The blood of Jesus is my faithful hedge of protection.  It is in His Almighty name that I pray, Amen.

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

“Blessed Assurance”
Sovereign Grace Worship

The Testing of your Faith – Lessons from Job 1-2 – 2025 Day 58

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Job 1-2; Psalm 26

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”

-Job 1:9-12 ESV

Like I wrote recently, "We learn of God’s grace as we are humbled. Surely these afflictions are for our good. It is good to recognize that nothing on earth will ever be enough. Treasures on earth – whether monetary or relational – will never satisfy. Our lives are better because of the thorns that the Lord has in His mercy given us. Our faith grows as it is stretched."

No one is a better example of this than Job!

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV

Friends, it’s a blessing to have your faith tested. When your faith is tested, it GROWS, and it shows you and everyone around you that it’s REAL!

Let’s pray,

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the gifts that You have given us – our health, our children, our home, our jobs, all of our possessions. They are gifts.

Draw our hearts to You, Lord. Forgive us for turning to these gifts instead of turning to You.

May we say with Job, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed by the name of the Lord.” None of us want to go through the sorrow of losing our children, our possessions, or our own health. But, Father, none of those things can ever truly satisfy.

You are our God, our refuge, our hope, our joy, our strength. Our faith is in You alone. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

In the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Click here for more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

“Here Is Love, Vast as the Ocean (Everlasting Praise)”
Live from Sing! – The Gettys, Sandra McCracken

Trusting God when People Hurt you – 2025 Day 55 (Genesis 45-46)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 23, Genesis 45-46

So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near.

And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

Genesis 45:4-8 ESV

I have a quick, simple question for y’all. Have you ever been sold into slavery by your brothers? No? Me neither.

Have you ever been hurt by anyone in your life? Yes? Me, too.

When someone hurts you, it can be hard (impossible?) to forgive them. Sometimes it feels like you simply can’t “let them off the hook” by forgiving them. We take on the role of punisher, paying them back for what they’ve done to us.

But let’s think carefully about Joseph’s words here. What if we saw God’s hand at work even in our pain? How would our desire to punish someone who hurt us change if we truly believed that God was working even this pain to bring good? Wouldn’t that make forgiveness a whole lot easier?

The truth is that God is always at work, accomplishing the best ends through the best means for the most people. Sometimes people get hurt during that … And sometimes those people include YOU and ME and OUR loved ones.

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father,

I trust You. I trust Your heart. I trust Your mercy and kindness and grace and power. You have proven Yourself to be good and faithful – in Your Word and in my life. But, Father, sometimes things look really bad to me. In fact, sometimes things really are bad. It’s wrong to sell your brother into slavery. That is wrong. Yet, Lord, you worked through that unthinkable tragedy to bring great good for a great number of people with fruit still being born even today.

I pray that I would trust You with all my heart, soul, and mind. Help me to remember Your steadfast faithfulness to Joseph, and me, now and forever.

In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Would you like more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan? Click here.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

Loving People When They Hurt You: Thoughts from the Life of Judah and his Dad – 2025 Day 54 (Genesis 42-44)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 22, Genesis 42-44

Genesis 42 kicks off with the famine having spread to the land of Canaan, thereby forcing Jacob to send his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Jacob sends ten of his remaining sons, but refuses to send Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, the only other son of Rachel, “for he feared that harm might happen to him.” (Genesis 42:4) Jacob is still playing favorites, like I wrote about here.

As though that’s not bad enough, even after Simeon (Jacob’s second son from his unloved wife, Leah) is left behind in Egypt, Jacob continues to insist that Benjamin cannot go to Egypt, saying, “My son shall not go down with you [Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn son], for his brother [Joseph] is dead, and he is the only one left.” (Genesis 42:38) In fact, Jacob still has eight other sons in addition to Reuben left at home, namely Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, and Zebulun.

How would you feel if you heard your father say such a thing about one of your brothers?

Wouldn’t you want to scream and cry and stomp your feet, “Hey, Dad, what about me? Don’t you love me? Aren’t I your son? What about me and my children? What if we starve here from this famine?”

When the famine becomes even more severe and all the Egyptian grain has been consumed, Jacob is finally willing to send his sons again to Egypt to buy food. (Keep in mind, Simeon had been left in Egypt as a captive all this time.)

Judah, Jacob’s fourth son who was also born to Leah, solemnly pledges to his father, “From my hand you shall require him [Benjamin]. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.” (Genesis 43:9 ESV)

To which Jacob finally relents, “May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” (Genesis 43:14)

Now, put yourself in the shoes of Judah, or one of Leah’s other sons or worse yet one of the sons of Rachel’s servant Bilhah or Leah’s servant Zilpah. Imagine hearing your father refer to Simeon, your big brother as “your other brother” while Rachel’s son is referred to by name. Benjamin, Jacob’s last son. Benjamin, the only remaining son of Rachel, Jacob’s dearly loved wife who died during his birth. Benjamin, the “son of my right hand.”

Whether spoken intentionally or not, Jacob’s words communicated to his children that Benjamin is more valuable than they are. Read Judah’s own words to Joseph about his dad at the end of Genesis 44.

“As soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die …
Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me?
I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

Genesis 44:31a, 33-34 ESV

In spite of the pain that his father has caused him, Judah still loves his dad. He may not be expecting a prodigal son’s welcome home — no father running to him with arms open wide. Rather, he is expecting to arrive home to a father who is looking behind him to see if his baby brother is there. And yet … Judah is still worried about the deep pain that his brother’s loss will cause his father.

Are you having a hard time loving someone who has hurt you again and again? Are you struggling to forgive someone who has repeatedly broken your heart?

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father,

How I long to see you face to face, to sit at your feet and have every tear wiped away from my eyes! How I ache for the pain and sin and sorrow of this world to be over!

But, Father, in the meantime, help me to love as Your Son loved. Remind me how much You have forgiven me. Show me my sin.

Help me to forgive even those who forget me and reject me and spit in my face. I want to forgive others as You have forgiven me.

Lord, I can’t do this on my own. I need Your strength. Help me to see the log in my own eye, to accept responsibility for where my own sin has contributed to the pain that I find myself in.

I want to overcome evil with good, for You are good and I am Yours.

In the Good and Gracious name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

Would you like to receive my daily blog posts sent directly to your email? Subscribe for free by entering your email below.

Would you like more information about my Read Through the Bible in Two Years plan? Click here.

If you would like prayer, please leave a comment below or send me a message. I’m happy to pray for you.

Please like and share.

Hymn of Heaven by Phil Wickham

The Unloved Wife – 2025 Day 47 (Genesis 29-30)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 15, Genesis 29-30

“When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, ‘Because the LORD has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.’

She conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘Because the LORD has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.’ And she called his name Simeon.

Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.’ Therefore his name was called Levi.

And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, ‘This time I will praise the LORD.’ Therefore she called his name Judah.

Then she ceased bearing.”

– Genesis 29:31-35

Leah viewed her first three sons as tools to get her husband to love her.

  • Son #1: Now my husband will love me.
  • Son #2: The Lord has heard that I am hated.
  • Son #3: Now my husband will be attached to me.

Yet, it’s Leah’s fourth son, Judah, the son whose name means praise, the son whose birth brought Leah to say, “THIS TIME I WILL PRAISE THE LORD,” whom God chose to father the line of Jesus Christ, God’s only Begotten Son and the Savior of the World,

Friends, think about this: it was Leah, the unloved wife, whom God chose to bear Judah.

I remember my own time of marital pains  and infertility. Reading this story about Leah is such an encouragement to me.

God has purpose both in our fertility and in our barrenness. May we bring Him glory in both!

Are you feeling unloved today? I’ve been there. But so has Jesus. He knows how it feels to be rejected by those who were supposed to love Him. And Jesus, the Great I Am, loves you. He is worth a thousand times more than the most perfect husband or a thousand imperfect sons.

Let me pray over you.

Heavenly Father,

You are close to the broken-hearted. You are the God who remains faithful when man is faithless. You love the unloved and the unloveable, the poor, the lonely, the rejected.

You are the good shepherd who pursues His lost sheep.

I pray that we would praise You when life is easy, and we would praise You when life is hard. No matter what, You are worthy of our praise!

We offer our hearts, minds, wombs, and lives to You. Father, fill them as You will in Your perfect timing and for Your perfect purposes. Help us to trust You with our hearts and our hurts.

In the name of Jesus our Savior and King we pray, Amen.

Click here for more information on reading through the Bible in Two Years.

Sorrow turned to Joy – 2025 Day 16 (John 16)

Published on by kendraskeLeave a comment

Read through the Bible in 2 years: Proverbs 16, John 16

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

– John 16:20-22 ESV

When I look at this picture, which was taken just moments after my youngest son was born, so many memories of that day flood back into my mind. After laboring into the wee hours of the night, I’d gotten my first epidural out of a crazy need for some rest, only to find myself overwhelmed by an intense feeling of panic when I couldn’t take a deep breath or feel my legs.

Yet, when that baby boy was delivered, all 8 pounds 15 ounces of him, I was even more overwhelmed by a feeling of ecstasy and joy, unexplainable to anyone who has never delivered a baby.

All the pain and exhaustion
was worth it, the very instant that little boy drew his first breath
and let out his first cry.

Just as friends try to prepare a new mom for the pain of labor and delivery, Jesus was trying to prepare His disciples for the great sorrow they would experience at His upcoming death and departure. An important part of that preparation that many experienced moms forget to share, is the immense JOY that you will experience after the pain is over.

Friends, listen to me, someday it will be worth it! Soon and very soon we are going to see the king! And there will be no more crying there. In this world we will indeed have tribulation, but we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world.

We don’t need to try to take shortcuts to avoid the pain, hiding our lights under bushels so no one can see them, drowning our sorrows in Facebook and food. Instead, we can rejoice today because we know with certainty that these labor pains are only temporary and that they will all be worth it when we see our Savior face to face.

Will you please join me in prayer?

Heavenly Father,

You are our hope in life and death. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Help us to fix our minds on things that are above. Help us to number our hours and days, knowing that these times are in fact short and these trials are indeed light, in comparison to the eternal weight of glory that is to come.

We pray for those who are in the depths of sorrow today, who are at the peak of the incredible pain of labor, who can’t seem to make out that light at the end of this valley of despair. Father, please, be their comfort and help them to see Your everlasting arms carrying them and Your loving hand guiding them through this dark valley. Use us to encourage them. Help us to grieve with those who grieve just as deeply as we rejoice with those who rejoice.

We pray for those who are without hope today because they are without Christ. We pray that You will open their eyes and soften their hearts to the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ who bore their punishment by His death on the cross. May today be their day of salvation, that many will rejoice with the angels over one lost sinner who repents!

In the holy and good name of Jesus we pray. Amen

Click here for more information on reading through the Bible in Two Years.